Nunn woman uses gluten intolerance to dream up new beer

JOSHUA POLSON/jpolson@greeleytribune.com
Twila Henley lets some of the millet slip through her fingers at the Grouse Malting and Roasting facility in Nunn Thursday afternoon. Henley intends to sell her malted millet as a gluten-free grain for brewing beer.

JOSHUA POLSON/jpolson@greeleytribune.com
Millet falls back into the bag at the Grouse Malting and Roasting facility in Nunn Thursday. Grouse Malting and Roasting owner, Twila Henley, hopes to malt 60,000 pounds of the gluten-free grain within her first year.

Entrepreneurial Challenge schedule

The fourth Monfort Entrepreneurial Challenge takes place in a “Shark Tank” format from noon to 5 p.m. March 7 at the University Center at the University of Northern Colorado, 20th Street and 10th Avenue in Greeley. The event is free and open to the public. Each of the five finalists will present a business plan, followed by questions from the judges. The audience also may ask questions. This year’s first-place winner will receive $25,000; second place $15,000 and the third, $10,000.

The schedule is as follows:

» Noon: Membrane Protective Technologies out of Fort Collins is a proprietary technology that protects dairy cattle sperm used in artificial insemination from freezing and thawing.

» 1:05 p.m.: Grouse Malting and Roasting Company out of Nunn, is a malting company focusing on organic, gluten-free grains for brewing and baking.

» 4:15 p.m.: Vertikle/5280 Prosthetics, Littleton, create a new generation of products for amputees that enable prosthetic devices to communicate with their users, relaying critical data to improve fit, function and the general health of the amputee.

» 5:30 p.m.: Winners will be announced at the Bravo! Entrepreneur Awards at the Union Colony Civic Center, 701 10th Ave., Greeley. Tickets to that event are $45 and can be purchased at www.ncbr.com.

For a more detailed schedule of events or to view live streaming video of the finalists’ presentations, go to www.mcb-echallenge.com.

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NUNN — Most businesses are born from a lifelong dream.Twila Henley’s Grouse Malting and Roasting started — literally — as a dream.Years ago, she woke up in her home state of Ohio having dreamt that she brewed some beer out of quinoa (pronounced keenwah), a specialty grain.“I thought it was strange,” said the 27-year-old Loudonville, Ohio, native. “I wondered what it meant. I never brewed, and I didn’t appreciate beer. Beer was a fraternity party flip-cup game. I didn’t drink a lot of alcohol.”She wasn’t a big beer drinker and she followed a gluten-free diet, anyway, having some issues with intolerance. “It’s funny how things just fell into place,” said Henley, now one of five finalists for the University of Northern Colorado’s Monfort College of Business Entrepreneurial Challenge, where she will present her business plan in a format based on the TV show “Shark Tank” on March 7.She’s seeking the $25,000 top prize to launch her business of roasting gluten-free malt for the craft-brewing industry. She’s the only Weld County finalist in the running against two medical-related companies, an organic gardening company and an outdoor fitness company. “We’d use the money a few ways,” Henley said. “Malting is complex and very hands-on, but the improvements we could make with automation would help with consistency.”Shortly after that dream, she moved to Colorado to get her master’s in food science at Colorado State University. While there, she took a brewing science class and developed a passion for it. “I quickly discovered the importance of malts in developing a high-quality brew,” she said, with a nod to the science geek laughing inside who loves the research. “I’m a mediocre brewer, but I’m an expert malter.”She interned at Rebel Malting in Reno, Nev., and learned the tricks of the malting trade. She graduated in 2011, and she turned her attention to starting a business.“I was always looking for ways to make money growing up,” she said, noting that she ran a lawn-care business when she was 14. But she also loved experimenting, trying recipes in the kitchen, expanding on them. As an adult, she learned to appreciate good, craft-brewed beer, but there is little out there for those who have issues with gluten. And she wasn’t alone. Research told her that almost 3 million Americans have Celiac disease, and 23 million Americans have gluten intolerances.“There’s not a lot of gluten-free beer on the market, and it’s probably not good quality,” Henley said. “It’s nearly impossible to make good, gluten-free beer out of sorghum and rice syrups.”The challenge was on. Malt is one of the four essential ingredients in beer, and she was in one heckuva an area for craft brewing, with several in Fort Collins, Loveland, and now three in Greeley.While interning at Rebel, Henley experimented with malting millet, a gluten-free grain that has some of the properties of barley, which is commonly used in beer.“I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to prove it’s possible to brew high-quality, gluten-free beer,” Henley said in her small, rented greenhouse alongside Golden Prairie Inc., owned by the Hediger family, who farms organic millet in Nunn, about 15 miles north of Greeley.She still holds down a full-time job at Noosa Yoghurt in Bellvue as a quality assurance manager. But the rest of her time is focused on boosting Grouse Malting and Roasting to the next level — launch.She’s not only made an effort, she’s got five letters of intent from area craft brewers who want to try her malted millet, once she gets moving on a larger scale. Her 33-page business plan is half the size of her master’s thesis, but she did it — with the help of a lot of advise from experts.“I’m a scientist,” she said. “To wear the hat of a CEO is a challenge.”She took out a personal loan to get some used equipment for the start-up, one piece being a coffee roaster that her boyfriend, William Soles, 27, configured to hold the smaller millet seeds.The pair will mix up their first batch of malted millet this week. She said she hopes to malt 60,000 pounds of millet in her first year, and she has grand plans to grow 15 percent in year two, and 400 percent by year three, or potentially sooner. She plans to make pale malt, roasted malt and crystal malt. She loves the idea that she’s helping out the local farmers.“Until recently, there really hasn’t been a market for millet,” Henley said. “We’re able to give farmers a better price for the crops.”She also plans to donate 1 percent of her profits to northern Colorado’s first Farm and Food Business Investment Club.Eventually, she will experiment with other gluten-free grains and potentially test the baking market. But with craft brewing capturing the market in northern Colorado, beer will do for now.